Page 219 - Wayne Carini's Guide to Affordable Classics

THE BACKSTORY
Long before the collapse of his ill-fated gullwing sports car, John DeLorean’s canny ability to anticipate the evolving tastes of American automotive consumers steadily propelled him up the GM corporate ladder. As chief engineer of the conglomerate’s Pontiac division, for example, he accurately sensed that the growing youth movement was looking for an attractive, low-priced performance car and the 1964 GTO proved him right – forecasts of 5,000 units were quickly eclipsed by sales six times higher.
Around the time of the GTO’s launch, DeLorean believed that a substantial market might exist for a two-seat sports car positioned below the Corvette. The idea was definitely in the air at the time: Chrysler displayed the Virgil Exner-designed Plymouth “XNR” concept in 1960, while Ford rolled out the mid-engine Mustang I two years later. In late 1963, DeLorean secured funding for the evaluation of a two-seat concept that picked up on some of the design work for the Corvair-based Monza GT and SS show cars that never went into production. Called the Banshee, Pontiac’s proposal had a fiberglass shell for reduced tooling investment and leveraged existing Tempest components to control costs. The base car would use a straight six while the upmarket performance version would offer a V8. Despite sensational styling – and the absence of any other product in the GM portfolio that could counter the new Mustang – GM axed the program due to perceived competition with the Corvette.
1964 Pontiac Banshee concept car was Pontiac’s first attempt to introduce a low-cost sports car into its portfolio. Two drivable prototypes were built, a hardtop with an OHC straight six and
a convertible version with a V8. Some within GM felt it would cannibalize Corvette sales.
The enthusiasm that led to the Banshee was channeled in milder form to the 1967 Firebird and Pontiac simply had to content itself with the fact that it was not much more than a “me too” Camaro. But when the oil shocks of the 1970s pressured automakers to improve fuel efficiency, there was a need to rethink what a modern sports car really was. In late 1978, Pontiac’s head of advanced engineering, Hulki Aldikacti, persuaded GM’s planning leaders to let the division study a two-seater that would be marketed as an economical commuter car. It didn’t hurt that the head of the committee, Pete Estes, was a former Pontiac Division general manager...
Pontiac Fiero
Working at an offsite location free of divisional and corporate interference, Aldikacti’s team created a running prototype in six months and received approval to move into the next stage of development. Known internally as the “P-car” project, Aldikacti’s proposal started with a ground-breaking mid-engine architecture, something that GM had flirted with for the Corvette since the late 1960s. But a mid-engine Corvette never came to fruition due in part to cost and technical complexity since so much of the chassis and powertrain would have to be specifically developed. In the P-car’s case, however, GM’s forthcoming front-wheel-drive “X-cars” provided a ready-made transverse transaxle that could be redeployed from front to rear with minimal changes, saving time and capital in the process.
Final Fiero design closely resembled this John Cafaro sketch (though perhaps with somewhat smaller wheels and tires).
Given that it was sold to the corporation as a commuter car, an economical four-cylinder engine was a prerequisite, though it would later prove to be one of the project’s biggest Achilles heels. GM’s unfortunate experience with the SOHC 2.3-liter four developed for the Vega ensured a conservative design for its replacement. Originally conceived for the X-car range, the 2.5-liter OHV design, named the “Iron Duke,” was largely derived from an engine originally developed by GM in Brazil. Designed with a priority of torque over power, it took few technical risks and was hardly an engine to excite enthusiasts.
In the meantime, the mid-engine concept defied attempts to cancel it. As a creative engineer who had a tendency to see opportunities within roadblocks, Aldikacti and his team envisioned the Fiero as space frame design, where unstressed plastic panels would save significantly on tooling costs. But the challenges with a plastic skin were considerable, given both the specific tolerances involved (due to thermal expansion and contraction) as well as the inability to “massage” the plastic during the assembly process, unlike steel. The dilemma was how to accurately and consistently position the panels on the space frame, and here the P-car team found inspiration in computer-controlled engine machining. The plastic panels would be attached at 39 points around the space frame, each of which started out as a postage-stamp-sized, epoxy-
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